North York Moors races

Heather moor on the top, deep wooded dales cut into it, and a coast on the eastern edge that most people underestimate. The moorland is fast when it is dry, on hard tracks between the heather, and slow when it is not. The coast path between Robin Hood’s Bay and Ravenscar is a repeating climb and drop that adds up to far more ascent than the map suggests.

Hardmoors runs most of the calendar here, from fifteen miles to a hundred and ten, alongside the coastal series races and shorter trail runs from Guisborough and Sutton Bank. Ascent tends to come in many small doses rather than one long climb.

Around two thirds of the races here expect navigation. The moor is the reason: on a clear day the line is obvious and on a low-cloud day one stretch of heather looks exactly like the next. Ground conditions swing hard with the season — the same track can be firm in August and a peat trench in February — so check what the organiser says about kit rather than assuming.

North York Moors trail running routes (7) with free GPX, if you want to run the ground before you race it.